This invention relates to sanitizing stations, particularly such stations suitable for use in an institutional environment such as a hospital or nursing home.
It is a well known fact that employees in food handling operations, such as large kitchens operated by institutions or companies, must have very clean hands. Government regulations, the public in general and customers demand that proper sanitation standards be met. It is not generally sufficient to simply wash hands with ordinary soap and water in many cases. In order to provide adequate safe guards, it is now known for food handlers to dip their hands into a pre-mixed germicidal solution after the usual washing with soap and water. However, this dipping method is not altogether satisfactory, being both messy and time consuming. Time is required to prepare the solution, to change the solution when required and to dispose of the used solution. Moreover, proper use of this solution is often not subject to adequate control by management. If the solution is not changed frequently due to human error or otherwise, this system can actually contribute to unsanitary conditions. A further problem with the known dipping method is that many employees and users do not like the method in that it requires them to dip their hands into a liquid that may have been previously used by many people.
The use of proximity switches to automatically turn on or off a water tap is known in the plumbing art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,333,160 issued July 25, 1967, to A. Gorski describes a proximity responsive system that turns on a water tap when the user's hands are positioned close to the tap. More recent U.S. Pat. No. 3,576,277 issued Apr. 27, 1971, to Don Curl teaches an apparatus for control of wash water at different temperatures for scrubbing or washing in order to avoid contamination by contact with non-sterile surfaces. A beam of light is used for the switching apparatus. When the beam is broken power is routed through a relay energizing a coil and, lighting an indicator light. A second light beam is broken in order to obtain medium temperature water and a third light beam is broken to obtain cold water
As far as the applicant is aware, proximity switches have not been used in the past to operate a device designed to spray a sanitizing solution onto the hands of the user in the manner of the present invention.
It is an object of the invention to provide a reliable and easy to use sanitizing device that employs a feed pump to deliver a sanitizing chemical concentrate to water in a pipe that is connected to a sprayer.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a sanitizing device that employs an electrical switch to operate the device upon placement of a user's hands at a predetermined location above or in a sink.